


Love At First Touch... Just Not With You

by Hamiltalian



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Chaotic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Not Related, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Being an Idiot, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Angst, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Logic | Logan Sanders Is A Good Friend, Logic | Logan Sanders Needs a Hug, M/M, Platonic Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Platonic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26582626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamiltalian/pseuds/Hamiltalian
Summary: In a world where you can't see color until the first time you touch your soulmate, Roman Prince has been dreaming of that day ever since he could wrap his head around what a soulmate was. Not to mention what color could do for his art! But when his soulmate turns out to be Remus Duke, the most vile, obscene, terrifying kid in their school... He has a few issues with that. But it's nothing that a few lies can't fix. ... Right?Yes, this is RemRom. No, they are not related.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders/Thomas Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

High school. Everybody said it was supposed to be the greatest time of your life, but, really, what was so great about it? Everyone’s going through puberty, the teachers expect you to be as responsible as a full grown adults while not even allowing you to go to the bathroom alone, and you were expected to map out the rest of your life before you even know what the fuck taxes are! And, on top of that, everyone’s always freaking out about soulmates. It was fair, even for the people who didn’t care about romance, they at least got to see color after they first met the person that the universe says is supposed to be the person you spent the rest of your life with. 

Of course, there were people who never got their soulmates, people who the universe just glossed over and, for teenagers who were watching their friends go around and find their soulmates, it was so easy to feel like they were those people and that they were broken for it, even if they had everything else that life could offer. 

Roman Prince was one such person, though nobody would look at him and think so. He was extremely popular, he starred in every single production that their drama department put on, and his parents were as loving and accepting as they could be, which was, unfortunately, more than a lot of other gay teenagers could say. Of course, he recognized how great his life was going, he knew that things were worse for a lot of people his age, especially those that also seemed to have feelings for the same gender or those who weren’t assigned the right gender at birth. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t yearn for a soulmate. He was still a teenager, after all, and, for those who actually do experience romantic attraction, there was nothing more obvious than a teenager seeking love. 

Honestly, during his senior year, it got so bad that it started to affect his grades. Not too poorly, it wasn’t like he was daydreaming to the point of failing all of his classes, it just felt like it sometimes. Like, in this instance, it meant he was getting a C on an English essay, a class that he prided himself on being able to get through without trouble. 

“A C?..” he muttered to himself as he got back the paper, recognizing that he was the one at fault for this. After all, his daydreaming had become a bit excessive. Therefore, it was also his responsibility to try and get this fixed and the first step he took to do so was going up to his teacher after class. 

“Mr Picani, I have a bit of an issue with my grade... I know it’s definitely not my best work, but you know me and you know that I can do better. I was hoping you’d give me a chance to fix it?” 

His teacher sighed and leaned back in his seat. “I do know you and I do know that you are usually a much better writer than this. Is something wrong?” 

“No,” he assured. “I’ve just been daydreaming so much lately, but, I promise, seeing a grade like this on my paper is really going to stop that.” 

Well... Roman did seem sincere. Mr Picani smiled and looked through his calendar. “Okay... I think if you come to my tutoring session this afternoon and work on some of the stuff I mentioned in my notes there, just stuff to get the paper to a higher level, we can see about getting your grade raised.” 

Roman let out a sigh of relief and nodded. “Thank you... I can definitely do that, I’ll see you then.” He walked out of the room and let his parents know he was going to be staying after school, taking the liberty of lying and claiming he wanted to stay to help a friend out with some history work, another decent skill for him. His parents weren’t particularly strict, but they had high standards for him, standards that Roman had been easily meeting all his life. He wasn’t going to tell them that he nearly sunk one of his best grades, especially not over something like daydreaming over his soulmate.

That afternoon, Roman went to Mr Picani’s classroom with the intention of being a good noodle and letting Logan help him fix his essay, stopping in his tracks as he saw who was joining them. 

Now, obviously, he didn’t just expect for it to be just the three of them, he expected there to be at least one or a few other students, but he didn’t know who it was going to be and he didn’t like who it was. 

Remus Duke. He was the one kid in Roman’s honor classes that made everybody wonder how on earth he was an honor student. He was rude, crude, and downright disgusting, and, more than anyone, Roman loathed him. It wasn’t like he hid it either, most of the time. He may have cared what the rest of the student body thought of him, but when it came to Remus, Roman just wished he would find the nearest bridge and- 

“Hey, Roman,” Mr Picani greeted. “Come in, take a seat, you’re right on time.” 

Remus glanced back at him and rolled his eyes before turning back to face Logan as he set his bag down, apparently having just gotten there himself. 

Roman may not have cared what Remus himself thought about him, but he did care what Mr Picani thought about him, so he stayed civil, taking a seat in the desk right next to Remus, though he did make a point to slide his seat away just a few inches. 

“You guys will have to excuse me, I’m kind of busy this afternoon, so it’ll just be you guys for the most part. All I ask is that you don’t break anything.” 

“Don’t worry,” Remus assured in that slimy, horrible voice of his that Roman absolutely hated. “The only thing I’ll be breaking is the ice between me and robo-geek here.” He reached over to hold Logan’s hand, the other quickly grabbing his wrist and holding it in a clearly painful position, judging by the satisfying way that Remus was wincing. 

“Abso-fucking-lutely not. I may tolerate your awful flirting, but Mr Picani has given me full permission to break you in half, if you so much as lay a finger on me.” Logan wasn’t particularly violent, but Remus wasn’t too great with boundaries most of the time and, as the only person who didn’t cry when he messed with them, Logan was usually on the receiving end of Remus’s advances. Fairly gracefully, too, but apparently, he drew the line at physical advances. 

Mr Picani shrugged and checked his watch. “I’m obliged to tell you to watch your language, but I did say that. Just don’t get him hospitalized, I have to go,” he said as he dashed out of the door, leaving the three teenagers on their own. 

Remus pulled his hand away and rubbed his sore wrist, impressed with Logan’s actions. “You do realize that that’s hot, right?” 

“While I usually don’t mind your verbal harassment, I’m going to have to ask you to stop for the sake of the one other person in the room.” 

Remus shrugged. “What’s Princey going to do? Kiss ass harder?” 

“God, I hate you,” Roman muttered. 

Remus snickered. “You make it so obvious, you might as well say it out loud.” 

“What we really should be doing is getting to work so we can all get out of here on time,” Logan reminded them. “You two can fight outside, not on my time.” 

“You got it, gorgeous.” Remus winked at him before getting his own work out of his bag, proudly placing his B- paper on the table. 

A B minus?! That was a few points higher than what Roman got! Roman bit the inside of his cheek and placed his work on his desk, subtly trying to hide the grade on top. 

“A C? Looks like Princey isn’t so perfect after all.” 

“Logan,” Roman began in a whining tone before realizing he was just giving Remus more ammo. “How do you deal with him?” 

Logan shrugged. “You learn to ignore it.” 

The three of them managed to get through an hour of working before Mr Picani came back, a heavy looking box in his hands. 

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but I have some more boxes to bring in, full of old assignments that I’m finally going to hand back soon. Do you think I could get a hand?..” 

“Of course,” Logan said. “You two stay here and keep working, I can help him.” 

“Thanks, Logan.” Mr Picani smiled and put down the box before leaving with Logan. 

Roman sighed and kept working on his essay, trying to ignore Remus as best as he could. 

“You know, if you rearrange the paragraphs a bit, that paper would be top notch.” 

Roman rolled his eyes and turned so is back was mostly towards Remus. “Whatever, I don’t need your help.” 

Remus snickered. “That’s not what your grade says. So, what’s the real deal? You’re a star student, all the teachers adore you, what’s up with you letting your grades slip, Princey?” 

“That’s none of your business,” he muttered. 

“Oh, you think I haven’t noticed your little daydreaming in every class? Come on, everyone’s noticed you just checking out most of the time, I know it’s why you’re not acting like the perfect prissy boy you are.” 

Roman clenched his fists and tried to ignore him. 

Remus grinned as he realized he was getting on Roman’s nerves and rested his head in his hand. “Can I take a guess what you were thinking about? Let’s see, a basic bitch like you? I bet you were daydreaming about your future soulmate. Whoever the poor guy is.” 

“Shut up,” Roman snapped, his temper running short. “At least I know I’ll have a soulmate, I bet a freak like you doesn’t have anybody.” 

Remus shrugged. “What, you think that’s insulting to me? I’ve heard worse. I’ve said worse. It’s not my fault you’re such an insecure little-” Remus was cut off as Roman shoved him back and almost out of his seat, laughing for a second before looking back at him, confused with his stupid grin still on his face. 

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Roman asked, slowly backing away. 

“Well, I’m not going to hit you, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m not a child like you are, but if you don’t know what I’m thinking about, it’s not your business.” 

Roman huffed and turned back down to his paper, a bit distracted by the pen markings on the paper. Something about them looked weird. Unexplainably weird. He just shrugged it off after a few seconds and got back to work as Mr Picani and Logan shuffled in with a few more boxes. 

“Nice to see you haven’t killed each other yet,” Logan commented. “Keep that up.” 

“Yeah, Princey’s been surprisingly well behaved these past few minutes.” 

Okay, that was weirder than the pen thing. Remus wasn’t just taking the time to sell Roman out? He was covering for him? Roman stared down at his paper, knowing that if he even glanced up at Remus, he’d start staring in an attempt to figure out what was going on in that strange mind of his. 

“He’s not exactly the one I was worried about, but good job anyways,” Logan said as he and Mr Picani left again. 

Roman waited for a few seconds after they left before speaking. “You didn’t rat on me? I pushed you.” 

Remus shrugged, not that Roman was watching. “What would I get out of that? I won’t benefit from you getting in trouble, plus I know you’ll feel extra guilty if you don’t pay the price for the awful crime of lightly shoving me.” 

Right, of course it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart or anything like that. How could it be? It was pretty clear that Remus didn’t have a heart. “Well, fine, as long as you don’t blackmail me with it. It wasn’t much of an attack and you definitely deserved it.” 

“I know that.” Remus grinned and decided to take mercy on the other for a few seconds, looking back down at the sketches on his arm. He had a favorite pen, one that he knew was different colors only because it was labeled as such, and he loved doodling on his arm with it, partly to wonder what it may have looked like to people who could perceive the color and also to act as somewhat of an alarm in case he ever did meet his soulmate. It had always looked like everything else, just plain old black and white, but now, there was something off about it. And something off about his own arm. He couldn’t really describe it. 

It looked so incomprehensible that Remus just shrugged it off and assumed that it was just an illusion, that maybe Roman’s words really were getting to him, at least a little bit. After all, Roman was right. He may not have been obsessed over the topic, but he did wonder who his soulmate was and he did fear that he didn’t have one, seeing as his group of friends wasn’t even a group. It was just one person and it wasn’t even Logan. Actually, he could’ve called Logan his friend, but he was pretty sure Logan wouldn’t say it back. 

So, if that was his relationship with people now, when it was supposed to be easiest to just pull someone out of a crowd and befriend them, who was to say that he absolutely had a soulmate? Maybe he didn’t and he liked to pretend that he was okay with that possibility, but really, it sort of scared him. Apparently, it scared him enough to make him see things. 

Roman did his best to finish his essay as quick as possible, having Mr Picani read it over and approve it before leaving, driving himself home and focusing on just how grateful he was to have escaped that situation. An hour in tutorial was fine, but an hour anywhere near Remus Duke? It was giving him enough of a headache to make him start hallucinating. He even had to leave dinner early and go to sleep, in hope that he’d feel better in the morning. 


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Roman was definitely feeling better, his head wasn’t hurting as he rolled out of bed and dragged himself in front of his bedroom mirror, the first step of his day always being to make sure he looked good as always. His task was interrupted by a yawn before he rubbed his eyes open and looked at himself, immediately being shocked out of his sleepy state. That wasn’t how the world looked last night. Well, it was, but Roman thought it was just some sort of weird hallucination! Was this... No, it couldn’t be color, could it? 

Roman stepped forward and reached out for his reflection, looking down at his arm and seeing that it wasn’t just the mirror, the sleeve that used to just be different shades of gray was now vibrant and bright, bursting with color. He gasped and looked around the room, almost overwhelmed by this early morning shock. This was color! Not only was this color, but it meant he’d met his soulmate! And it could only be one of so many people, he was a social guy, but he didn’t make a habit of going around touching everybody. No, that sounded more like something- 

Roman’s blooming excitement withered away in a second as he realized something. There was only one person he touched yesterday, at least only one person he made skin to skin contact with. But that absolutely couldn't be right, could it? No, he was Roman, he was the most popular guy in school, he was the star of the drama department and he was the squeaky clean, proud prep of their school. Of all the people his soulmate could be, it absolutely could not be Remus! 

Remus was vile, awful, disgusting, whatever other synonyms for that he could think of. He was the opposite of Roman and he was the opposite of whatever kind of person Roman had ever thought could be his soulmate. Soulmates were supposed to be perfect matches, other halves, the person you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, none of those were positions that Roman would ever let Remus fill. 

Wait, that was it! There was no contract, nobody saying that he had to accept Remus as his soulmate, he could just take the color and live his life as it was! Worse case scenario, Remus would bug him about them being soulmates but... God, that would be annoying. Okay, Roman could think of a solution for that later. Why would Remus want him as a soulmate, anyways? The two were so different, Remus absolutely had to be feeling the same way, no matter how much of an absolute catch Roman knew he was. 

Well, no matter how much he would hate it, Roman was wrong. Dead wrong. 

Remus saw the change almost as soon as he woke up that morning, after spending a few hours the past night simply assuming that he was finally losing his mind. He was overjoyed and immediately went around the room, looking at every little thing that he could. There were so many colors! Though, it was clear that, even without the ability to see them, he was drawn to the color green. He loved it, it suited him and it matched his eyes. 

His eyes! Oh god, he’d forgotten that his eyes were colored! He didn’t doubt for a second that brown eyes would look gorgeous, but anybody who had color was very open about the fact that they adored colored eyes and he had them! He just never had anybody to tell him what they were like, as laughably obvious as it was. He only had one friend and he didn’t care much about color, so neither of them appreciated just how gorgeous his emerald eyes would be. Now, all he needed was to know who exactly gave him that gift! 

It didn’t take long for him to narrow it down to two people, Logan and Roman, they were the only people besides Janus who even came close enough to touch him the day before, though he and Janus touched before, obviously. And... Surely, he must’ve touched Logan before at least once, right? He’d interacted with him so much and while he couldn’t remember a specific moment, he was almost certain that they’d come into contact before, so that only left Roman! 

Remus’s reaction to the realization was a lot different than Roman’s, not that either of them would have any clue as to how the other was reacting. Remus didn’t know much about Roman, but he knew that he was in love with the idea of soulmates, to the point where he let it affect his grades, so surely he would at least give Remus a chance. That wasn’t something he could say about everyone and he knew it, but Roman... Again, Remus didn’t know him and, from what he did know, he didn’t particularly like him, but they were soulmates, the universe put them together. Surely, Remus’s odd personality wasn’t bad enough to rip that bond apart. ... Right? 

Both boys went to school that morning with their intentions set. Roman would do everything in his power to avoid Remus and Remus would do everything in his power to make sure that he and Roman at least got to talk, even if it was just to verify that he was his soulmate. If he wasn’t, Logan was just as great, if not better. Logan was used to his antics, he just wasn’t the likely truth. 

Logan! That was Roman’s answer, he realized as he saw him walking to class. 

“Logan!” he shouted out, quickly making his way over to the other, ignoring the small crowd that turned to face him as he did. They quickly dispersed anyways, so the only person left staring at him in utter confusion was Logan himself. 

“What?” 

“I have... A weird, huge favor to ask.” 

Logan shrugged. He put up with Remus all the time and this was just Roman, how bad could this really be? “What is it?” 

“I...” Despite being certain that nobody was listening in, Roman looked around a few times before stepping a bit closer to Logan. “You have to swear that you won’t tell anybody...” 

Alright, now this was getting weird, but Logan could keep a secret. “What is it?” 

Oh, god, this was so much scarier with Logan that close, but he’d already flagged him down and gotten his attention, he had to go through with it now. “I think... I think Remus is my soulmate, but he literally cannot be. I am begging you to pretend that he’s yours, at least until I figure something else out for him.” 

“Oh, you see color?” Logan said curiously. “Strange. No offense, but most people don’t usually wear something with that much gray once they do, especially not the day after. I did always think it was strange that gray seemed to be your signature color, judging by how often you wear that jacket.” Everyone developed an attraction to a certain color before they could even see them. It was impossible to explain, but it was there and Roman was pretty damn sure that neither his color nor his jacket were gray. 

Roman closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There were two obvious issues here. “First of all, Logan, this is not gray. I’m... I mean, it has some white on it, but it is an otherwise red jacket.” 

“Oh...” Logan muttered. He’d forgotten about that. 

“Second, you already have your soulmate? Why doesn’t anybody know that?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice down. That was exciting for anyone and it was especially exciting since maybe Logan was in the same boat he was. Maybe Logan had been paired with some other prep or even a jock and was just hiding from it how Roman was. Maybe this swap would work out better than he’d imagined!

“We don’t really like to make a big deal out of it,” he said simply. “There’s no point in lying, so I might as well say it’s Virgil.” 

Welp, there went that idea. Virgil was Logan’s very obvious best friend who made most people wonder if they were more than friends. Sure, now Roman had a definitive answer to that question, but what he didn’t have was a solid idea for avoiding his own stupid soulmate! “I’m very happy for you two, but I seriously need some help here and I’m willing to do whatever it takes for you to help me.” 

Logan sighed and leaned against the wall, thinking. He didn’t particularly want to lie to Remus, not about something that big, but he also didn’t want to let Roman just go and crush his heart because he didn’t want to give him a chance. Logan was pretty sure that Remus only saw him as a fun outlet for his flirting, but between all of that, Logan actually started to care for him in a platonic sense. And he knew that this would hurt him. It would hurt anybody. “I will help you, but it will absolutely not be for your benefit. I’m helping you because Remus is a nicer guy than you think and he doesn’t deserve whatever kind of treatment you’re planning to give him, should I refuse this task. 

All Roman was concerned with was that Logan would do it, unconsciously proving his point. “Great, you’re such a life saver,” he sighed, putting a relieved hand on his chest. 

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up at Roman. “Just act like you haven’t talked to me, I’ll deal with him.” 

Roman almost laughed at that. “Are you sure? No offense, but you don’t seem like you’d be that great of an actor. I can help you.” 

“No, I can handle it. You don’t talk to me, being here would seem suspicious, now go.” 

Roman wasn’t sure of how much he trusted Logan’s words, but he was already doing him a huge favor here, the last thing he needed was Roman questioning him. “Alright... Thank you, again, I seriously owe you for this!” Roman smiled and walked off to his class, enjoying the world in color without the weight of it’s price weighing down on him. 

Logan rolled his eyes at that and kept walking, going to find Virgil. If anybody else needed to know about this, it was definitely him. 

He found Virgil in his usual spot, an abandoned classroom, and sat beside him, kissing his cheek as usual. 

“Good morning,” Virgil responded, taking off his headphones. 

“Good morning... I have to talk to you about something, nothing too bad.” 

Despite his reassuring clarification, Virgil was still terrified. “What is it?..” 

“You know Roman, right?” 

“Who doesn’t know Roman?” 

Right, of course he knew Roman. “Well, he’s Remus’s soulmate, but he’s seriously against the idea and he’s asked me to pretend to be Remus’s soulmate myself until he can figure something out. I’m not going to really date him and I won’t cross any boundaries that you might not be comfortable with letting me cross, but...” Logan hoped Virgil wouldn’t think he was crazy for this. “Remus really is a nice guy. He’s a bit obscene and has trouble respecting boundaries, but he seriously doesn’t deserve to be hurt in the way that Roman would hurt him without my help.” 

Logan seemed serious about that, more serious than he was about most things and that was saying something. It was definitely going to be a bit weird for Virgil to see, but it wasn’t like he could just tell Logan what to do If he wanted to help a friend, he wanted to help a friend. “I mean... I can’t really stop you. It’ll be awkward, but I trust you.” 

As obvious as it should’ve been for Virgil to react that way, Logan was still relieved. “Thank you... I’ll still make more than enough time for you, of course.” 

“Well, I’d hope so,” Virgil joked. “You’re my only friend and my soulmate, you’re kind of stuck with me.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Logan managed to smile at that, but honestly, it was words like those that terrified him. Now, it wasn’t that he didn’t care fr Virgil because he did, he loved him. He just wasn’t sure if he loved him enough. After all, it was like he’d been reminded earlier, he couldn’t see every color. It wasn’t that he was colorblind, he wished it was that. 

Logan had spent hours researching colorblindness, but he didn’t find one that existed in a way that he saw, where the only colors missing were, to his knowledge, reds and pinks and oranges. He wasn’t missing any green, he could see the green that Remus wore everyday, he could see every other color of the rainbow, so he had no idea what was wrong with him. But if anybody would worry about him more than himself, it was Virgil. So, Logan kept it to himself, desperately hoping that he could hide it forever. 

“I think I should go find him... I’ll talk to you later?” 

Virgil nodded and tapped his lips, asking for a kiss. 

Logan smiled and gladly gave him a gentle kiss, lingering for a few seconds before pulling away and leaving. 


	3. Chapter 3

When he got to school that morning, Remus only had one thought in mind: He had to find Roman. The other may have been avoiding Remus, not that he would know that, but it wasn’t particularly hard to find him as he took the longer, less crowded path to the drama room to hang out before class. 

“Roman!” he called out as he started jogging in his direction, glad that there were no classrooms in that hallway, no teachers to scold him. 

Roman turned back, his face going white as he saw Remus chasing him down. He was about two seconds away from running when he saw his savior joining them. 

“Roman, I really need to talk-” 

“Remus?” Logan asked as he approached them. “I was hoping I could talk to you.” 

“Oh, um..” Remus looked between the two of them. “Sorry, I really need to talk to Roman for a second.” 

Logan brought out his acting skills, feigning a look of disappointment. “Oh.. So, it’s not you.” 

Alright, that caught Remus’s attention. He turned away from Roman and looked at Logan. “What’s not me?..” 

“Um...” Logan knew he came across as the type of person who wouldn’t make a huge deal about soulmates and that was pretty accurate. “Well, I got color. I was wondering who else did.” 

Remus grinned brightly for a second before remembering that there was somebody else there. “Sorry, Roman, I don’t need to talk to you.” He grabbed Logan’s wrist and pulled him in the other direction, talking to him. “Isn’t this crazy? I could’ve sworn we’ve touched before!” 

Logan shrugged and gestured down at his arm, which was covered with his sweater sleeve even now. “I wear a lot of long sleeves.” Technically, it was Virgil’s sweater, but Logan wasn’t lying, he did wear a lot of long sleeves. 

Remus nodded, seeming to believe that pretty easily. “If I’d known it would’ve taken getting touched by you to find my soulmate, I would’ve been begging for that a long time ago,” he joked with a wink. 

Logan smiled softly. “I’m pretty sure you did beg for it at least once, I was just too sane to not go through with it.” 

Remus laughed at that and let go of Logan’s wrist, holding his hand instead. 

Logan let him link their fingers together, but his mind was elsewhere. He really hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake by agreeing to this. 

Roman felt like he’d just gotten rid of his biggest problem, but it wasn’t long before a new one took its place. He may have gotten color and gotten rid of Remus, but his daydreaming was probably worse than ever. It felt like he was only in each class for two seconds before the bell would ring, the rest of his time lost to his own imagination. After all, he’d just gotten color. A lot of teachers would’ve been merciful if they’d known about it, but to let a teacher know he could see color was to let a teacher know that he had a soulmate and without a name, it would seem like he was just covering up for his already awful habit of daydreaming. Even worse, if Remus heard about it, Roman would no longer be in the clear with him. 

But it was color! It was the thing Roman had been dreaming about since he was a toddler, even more so as he developed a taste for art and he couldn’t stop thinking abut how many things he could be drawing or painting now that this entire new world was opened to him! There was no way he could just get himself to stop and he knew that, which was why it was his first priority as he finished up his unfortunately fast day and went home, claiming he had homework to catch up on before locking himself up in his room. 

Once he knew he was safe and alone, he crawled under his bed and pulled out the large chest of art supplies that he kept stored down there. There wasn’t particularly much in there yet, not as far as color went, but he knew there were at least some things he could play around with. With his heart pounding against his ribs, Roman unlocked the chest and pushed it open, immediately scanning for something he could use without getting caught. Paints and chalks were definitely out and pencils... He could save those for a day when he was feeling less like absolutely tearing into a sketchbook. The last thing he wanted to do was literally tear through one. So, that left crayons! 

Roman pulled out a couple of the many 24 packs of crayons, leaving the bigger packs for a day when he wasn’t so excited that he was certain he’d snap a few, and a fresh sketchbook before looking for something, anything he could draw. After about a minute, he pulled up a chair to his bedroom window and looked outside, challenging himself to recreate what he saw as best as he could. It was definitely a bit strange when he was limited to just 24 crayons, but he made it work. It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely something he could be proud of, especially for his first time using color! 

Oh! There was a perfect place he could tack it up, right- 

Roman interrupted himself as he got up and sat back down. Right... Nobody could really know that he saw color. This was going to be tougher than he’d expected. After all, half of Roman’s personality was being showy, openly displaying the pride and joy that he called his art for anyone to see and now, he couldn’t share any of his new stuff! Sure, he could always make some new black and white art, but after all those years of not being able to see in color and being restricted to black and white, he wasn’t sure he could get himself to make more, at least not until he got his initial excitement out of his system. Instead, Roman sat and found a few more things around his room to draw, doing his best to figure out how every element of art would change with color. 

Of course, Roman wasn’t the only one with new things to enjoy. As soon as the school day ended, Remus managed to wait until after school to talk to Logan again, but the second that the last bell rang, he sped around the school until he found Logan in the library, with his well known best friend Virgil. As excited as he was, he was a bit hesitant to approach them, knowing that Logan was a quiet person. Who knew if he’d told even Virgil about his soulmate? Remus wouldn’t have put it past him, especially seeing who it was, and he didn’t want to put Logan in that kind of situation. 

He just became his soulmate that morning, he didn't want to already get rejected. And, look, Remus really wasn't one for overthinking anything like that, but if the universe was going to give him a built in partner or even friend, who was he to just gamble that chance away when other people had gotten rid of their soulmates for less? Maybe he should just go, he could talk to Logan-

“Remus?” Virgil asked from their table. “Are you going to join us or just stand there like a weirdo? Logan already told me everything.” Logan may not have told Remus everything, but he told him what he needed to hear and Virgil could understand that. 

“He... Did?” Remus asked, slowly approaching and glancing over at Logan for confirmation. 

“Of course I did. Virgil’s my best friend, I have no reason to hide anything from him. And you’re my soulmate, there’s no reason for me to hide you from anyone.” If only Roman could think like that. Remus wasn’t bad, he just had an odd sense of humor and atypical interests. 

Remus beamed and plopped down at the table with them. “Yeah, that’s me. You know, I always assumed you two were soulmates.” 

Virgil shrugged. “Honestly, considering what Logan tells me about the stuff you do, I’m not really surprised.” He didn’t mind that Remus liked to flirt with Logan. Logan made it clear that the flirting was just joking around, it wasn’t Virgil’s place to stop him. Did he get a little jealous? Sure, sometimes, but he ultimately knew that Logan was his boyfriend and his soulmate, even if he was doing a friend a favor by pretending to be someone else’s right now. 

Remus chuckled at his comment and turned to Logan. “So, like... Are we friends for now or what?” 

“That would be ideal,” Logan responded, trying not to be too quick. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out with you, but to say we’re dating...” 

“You don’t need to explain yourself, I get boundaries,” he shrugged. “You of all people should know I get boundaries.” Most people just started ignoring him the second he annoyed them, but Logan was smart enough to actually ask him to stop when he wanted him to stop. Remus wasn’t an asshole, that was all he needed. 

Logan smiled at that and nodded. “I know. The whole soulmate thing just makes everything weird.” He and Virgil were friends for years before they found out they were soulmates. Things were definitely a bit awkward between them for a while after that. 

“I’ll try not to make it weirder than I already am, then,” Remus said, playfully winking in Logan’s direction. 

Logan chuckled and grabbed his homework from his bag. “We’re just going to be working, if you don’t mind sticking around for that.” 

“Of course I don’t mind, how else would I have such fantastic grades?” Remus grabbed his own work and joined the two of them in their studying. It was a bit weird for him having Virgil around, but the two of them had just become soulmates, it wasn’t like he was going to expect Logan to just hang out with him alone right off the bat. That would be like if Remus-

Oh, wait! 

Remus pushed his chair back after a few minutes, grabbing his phone from his pocket. “Sorry, I forgot to tell Janus where I was going to be.” It had been a long day and it wasn’t like he’d been planning on joining Logan and Virgil, it was a choice he’d made only a few minutes before his last class had let out for the day. “I’ll be right back.” He stepped out into the hallway and called his friend, hoping he wouldn’t be too upset about his absence. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Jay! Sorry, I forgot to tell you I was going to hang with Logan today.” 

“Oh, I figured, I’m already heading home.” Remus was usually Janus’s ride too and from school, but it wasn’t too far of a distance for him to walk. And after years of friendship, Janus had a pretty good sense of what days he’d have to take the initiative and walk himself home, one of those days obviously being the day that he met his soulmate. 

“Cool, I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Don’t worry about it, just go have fun with Logan.” His tone my have been a bit sarcastic, but that was just his voice. Janus was happy for Remus, he needed somebody else to just kind of let him be as he was. And for it to be Logan, someone who had a reputation for knowing how to put up with Remus, Janus wanted to say he had absolutely no worries for them. 

There was just one thing. Logan and Virgil got along very well. Almost too well for them to just be friends. At least, that’s what his walking in on them making out in abandoned classrooms said. But, hopefully, that was just in the past. Just in case, he’d keep an eye on them, but Remus needed some love for right now and Logan seemed willing enough to give it to him. 

Remus smiled, unaware of everyone’s worries about his soulmate issue, and walked back into the library, spending the next few hours with Logan and Virgil before driving them all home. 


	4. Chapter 4

In true Roman fashion, he ended up lost in his world until his mother came up to call him for dinner, thankfully staying outside of his room. Still, Roman jumped about ten feet into the air as he heard her calling and quickly responded before shoving his sketchbook and crayons in with his other hidden art supplies and pushing the chest back under his bed. He was still distracted all throughout dinner, something his parents misattributed to his usual spacing out, but at least it was a lot easier to control now that he got a little bit out of his system. 

After dinner, he figured it was too big of a risk to start creating again, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself and go to sleep once he started, so he actually got onto his homework and made a new black and white sketch, to be colored later, of course, just in case anybody asked him about any new pieces. It was weird. Roman was always so proud of his artwork. Even when it wasn’t quite perfect, he would just change whatever was bugging him or put it down and come back to it later, but he just couldn’t seem to do that this time. Nothing really felt right, not when he was imagining something in color. It wasn’t even a matter of looking incomplete, it just didn’t feel...Right. 

After a couple more frustrating hours, Roman decided to call it a night, figuring that he just didn’t get all of the coloring out of his system, and went to bed.

Being teenagers, it was only about three days before the plan started falling apart and, of course, the weakest link was the ring master. Roman was just so over continuing working in black and white and hiding his colored works, he was too ready to show the world, but he was even more desperate to make sure that his secret stayed a secret. Once again, he came up with a plan, this time one involving Virgil. 

“No,” he responded the second that Roman made his proposition. 

“Oh, come on,” Roman whined. “Logan already agreed to help me and I promise I’ll make it worth your time. I mean, your soulmate is busy tricking my soulmate into thinking that they’re soulmates, surely you need somebody else to hang out with,” he suggested with a slightly forced smile. 

Virgil stared up at him. “And whose fault is that, exactly?” 

“Oh, come on, that’s not fair!” He sat down beside him. “If you were Remus’s soulmate, don’t you think you’d be pawning him off onto somebody else?” 

“No, but even if I would, I would be dealing with the consequences of my actions like a big boy and not like a little kid who’s just had his crayons taken away.” 

Roman pouted and grabbed his backpack. “Look, I’m not asking you to spend _all_ of your free time with me, I’m asking for you to just tell a white lie. And, in exchange, I made you something.” 

Alright, that got Virgil’s attention. But not because he thought he’d actually be interested in whatever lame gift Roman made him, he was just pretty curious as to what a prep like him thought he could make to impress- 

Virgil’s train of thought derailed itself as he saw the jacket that Roman pulled out of his bag. He loved his own well broken in dark gray hoodie, but the black and dark blue and purple patched jacket that Roman was offering up was definitely more than tempting. 

The look on the emo’s face said everything that Roman wanted to hear. “Logan won’t need to trick Remus forever, but you can keep this jacket even if something goes wrong. All you have to do is say that you’re my soulmate for now. I just want to color in public.” And Virgil was definitely a better candidate than Remus for being his universe-appointed true match. Sure, the whole emo or goth or whatever thing he had going on was far from Roman’s tastes, but at least Virgil was a respectable enough guy. He said things that didn’t freak people out and he wore clothes that, may have been all dark, but actually fit. 

This was a stupid idea. Virgil knew for a fact that this was a stupid idea and he was counting down the days until it all fell apart and everyone found out the truth. Roman managed to last about three days before being unable to handle the idea that people couldn’t see his art, surely this plan couldn’t last more than a couple of months. And he would be able to keep that pretty awesome jacket. 

“Say yes now and I’ll pay for you to get your hair dyed.” 

“Done.” 

Roman beamed and handed Virgil the jacket. “Alright, try it on. Let me know if you want me to make any alterations.” 

Virgil looked around to make sure the empty room was still empty before getting out of his usual jacket, taking a moment to mourn the potential death of an era, before pulling on the jacket that Roman gave him, though not without hearing a few unnecessary comments. 

“Woah, no wonder you always wear such a baggy jacket, you’re really hiding some guns down there,” Roman said, poking at one of Virgil’s biceps. “If this was what My Chemical Romance was describing in Teenagers, I might have to change up my style.”

Virgil smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch me. And, yeah, Logan suggested working out to relieve some stress and I can just do it at home, so it’s pretty chill.” Plus, he knew that Logan enjoyed the fact that Virgil could lift him up, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. Instead, he put on the new jacket, pleasantly surprised to find that it was the perfect size: a few sizes too big. “I guess this is pretty cool...” 

“Great!” Roman cheered to himself. “Now, come on, we have to tell people that you’re my soulmate. You know we all know I’d gladly show you off.” He grabbed Virgil’s arm and began walking, stopping abruptly as Virgil’s lack of movement yanked him back. “Boy, you really are strong.” 

“Yeah, physical strength is something I have. Social strength is not. I’m not going to be meeting anybody until at least Monday.” He usually needed 3-5 business days to prepare before meeting someone new, but for a situation like this, he could jack the timeline up. Just this once. “You can wait one more day.” Technically, seeing as it was a Friday, he’d be waiting three more days, but only one school day. 

Roman groaned, but he supposed he couldn’t force Virgil to go with him, especially seeing as he didn’t have the strength needed to physically drag him there. “Fine. And I’ll take you to get your hair dyed whenever, just let me know.” 

“Tonight?” Virgil had been wanting to dye his hair since he was thirteen, of course he had a color picked out. 

Roman shrugged. He didn’t have anything better to do. “I’ll see if my usual place even has any time slots for today and get back to you on that.” 

That was fair. Virgil would’ve been happy with some decent box dye, but if Roman was going to be paying for him to get his hair dyed by someone who knew what they were doing, who was he to argue? “Alright, I’ll see you then, Golden boy.” 

“Golden boy? Why do you call me that?” He’d never heard it, but Virgil used it casually enough that it had to be habitual. 

“Not for the reason Remus says, if that’s why you’re asking.” Remus overheard Virgil talking about Roman and made a deeply incorrect assumption about the origin of that nickname. 

“Why does Remus think you call me that?” he asked, though he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the answer. 

Virgil shrugged. “If you don’t know, you don’t need to know. I say it because you’re blonde. You know that kid Patton, right?” 

“... You know Patton?” Patton was a sweet and chipper kid. The last person Roman would’ve expected to know him was Virgil. 

“He’s my cousin’s soulmate,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But, yeah, I call him Goldilocks. That was taken, so Golden boy it is, for you.” 

Roman was pretty sure that left more questions than it answered. “You call Patton Goldilocks?” 

“Yeah, I kind of said it on accident one day and he kind of laughed, so I guess he liked it and it stuck.” 

That would’ve been fine and well, but Patton wasn’t blond. Patton was a redhead. 

“I mean, it’s probably not the most fitting, his blonde isn’t really bright and gold like yours is, but it’s not like there’s a ton of blondes here. I would call you Rapunzel, but Janus took that nickname when he bleached his hair to match Patton’s.” 

Right, well Janus’s hair actually was blond now, so that made enough sense. You know what, no, this wasn’t the time for that argument. “Alright, well, I guess I’ll see you later, then.” He gave Virgil a quick smile and left the room, wondering if Logan knew that Virgil couldn’t see red either. Because, to be honest, he wasn’t sure that Virgil himself knew. 

Virgil didn’t know. And, therefore, Logan didn’t know. And it was one of the multiple things that was just wearing him down by the day. He thought he could handle the pressure of lying to Remus the way he was, that he knew he’d feel better if he didn’t subject Remus to the humiliation of finding out that they weren’t really soulmates, that he wanted to save him from Roman’s feelings, but he was wrong. He was feeling guilty, though not as guilty as he was feeling about Virgil. Most of the time, he was able to ignore the missing colors, but now that Roman had asked his permission to use Virgil as his own fake soulmate - not that he’d needed to, especially not when Logan himself was doing the exact same thing - he couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Would being around Roman more mean that Virgil would see the missing colors too? Or was his vision complete and it was just Logan who couldn’t see them? It was eating at him more than he cared to admit and it was why he’d spent that Friday afternoon alone in the library. Remus had quickly agreed to give him that afternoon of privacy and Virgil was off with Roman, getting his hair dyed, as Logan attempted to distract himself with a book, failing miserably and doing so more obviously than he’d like.

“Hey, are you okay?” 

Logan looked up at the stranger, knowing he was speaking to him, and tried to push down his miserable expression. “I’m alright.” 

The kid smiled at him and sat down across the table. “That was kind of a rhetorical question, you look kind of miserable. Sorry to just make myself at home here, I just always feel like a bad day is a little better when you have someone to talk to. I’m Thomas, by the way.” 

“Hello, Thomas,” Logan said through a sigh, realizing that this guy wasn’t going to leave. It was comforting and annoying at the same time. “You seriously don’t have to sit here with me, I was just thinking about some things...” 

“I know, but I wanted to. I mean, I can leave if you want, but if you need somebody to talk to, I’m already right here.” He shrugged. “I’m new to the school, so I guess you could call this my first weak attempt at making a friend.” Technically, he’d been there for a week, but people were so much harder to talk to in crowds. Plus, it was pretty clear that this guy needed a friend right now and there was nobody else around to fill that role. 

The offer really was tempting... Logan didn’t have anybody else he could unload onto, he couldn’t tell Virgil about his worries about their relationship because it would freak him out and he couldn’t tell Roman or Remus literally anything going on in his mind. “How good are you at keeping secrets?” 

“Pretty good, but it’s not like I have anybody I could spill to, anyways,” he joked. “I can keep a secret.” 

“Great because I have quite the story for you.” 

Logan proceeded to unload onto this seemingly friendly stranger, keeping the story just vague enough to not go on for an hour. He told him about pretending to be someone’s soulmate and why he was doing it and how having his own real soulmate hang out with someone who wore so much red was terrifying as well as why. He didn’t really mean to add that last part, but it was out before he could realize it, Logan going pale as it caught up to him.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to add that last part, there’s just been so much going on, I kind of lost control there..” 

Thomas gave him an understanding smile. “I mean, I can’t blame you. It sounds like a ton of stress. I’m surprised you haven’t broken down to anybody else before now.” 

Logan shrugged. “It’s not often that a stranger comes up and offers to just listen.” He might’ve been a bit better about keeping his problems to himself, but it was a particularly tough week for him, the cause of which being the one thing he wasn’t okay with unloading onto a stranger. 

“I’m glad I did, then. And, about the soulmate thing, maybe you shouldn’t stress about it so much. If this Virgil guy is as cool as you say he is and you two really get along that well, I’m sure he won’t get mad at you for something that’s not in your control.”

Angry? No. Stressed to the bone? Probably. “Thank you..”

Thomas nodded. “Do you, like... want my phone number? We could both use a friend, me because I’m new and you because... Yeah.” 

“Sure.” He’d already spilled his guts to this guy, he might as well officially befriend him. 

The two spent the next few hours talking about anything but soulmates, mainly sticking to the subject of school. 

It was kind of nice, actually. For the first time that week, Logan wasn’t stressing too hard and he wasn’t thinking about Roman’s god awful plan or about freaking out Virgil. It was just him and his new friend talking. A new friend... It felt like just what Logan needed. 


	5. Chapter 5

For the next couple of school days, things went by fairly smoothly. At least, more smoothly than they’d expected. Roman introduced Virgil as his “soulmate” and managed to only barely screw up, having forgotten about the possibility of being asked how the two of them figured it out. It took a few moments of stuttering before Roman just said that he was in the library and they’d knocked over a few books and picked them up together. It was a cliche meeting story, exactly what people were expecting from someone like Roman, and it fit Virgil well enough, seeing as he and Logan practically lived in the library after school. 

Speaking of, it was weird for Virgil to not be able to hang out with Logan in the library as much. It wasn’t that Roman had some weird ban on the library for him, but the two of them were expected to be inseparable for at least the first few days or, for someone like Roman, weeks. And it wasn’t like he could just back out, he’d already let Roman pay for him to dye his hair an absolutely badass shade of purple, though it was a bit bluer than he’d thought it would be. It took about an hour of reassurance from Logan before he was alright to go out without worrying about people putting it together that his hair was too close to Logan’s main color, but his boyfriend had managed to ease his worries. Of course, he knew what Virgil didn't from what Roman said, that the shade of purple in Virgil’s hair was actually way more red than they could perceive. 

But that wasn’t the point, the point was that Logan was acting weird! Okay, well, Virgil didn’t figure that out immediately, but he did think he was acting kind of weird. The two of them couldn’t make as much time to hang out during school, but after school, hanging out at each other’s house, Logan was acting kind of... Off.

It wasn’t a bad off, which was why Virgil wasn’t sure what to make of it. After all, he knew Logan was at least under some kind of stress, if not from dealing with Remus, than from lying to him about something like that. So, it was pretty fair of Virgil to watch him and wonder why he was acting almost chipper. He seemed more upbeat than what would’ve made sense and Virgil didn’t like questioning his boyfriend’s happiness, but he was at least a bit curious. After all, what could’ve possibly happened between then and last week that was making Logan so happy that Logan didn’t want to tell him? It couldn’t have been some kind of surprise for Virgil, that felt too risky with everything going on. So... What was it? 

Virgil prided himself on being a good boyfriend for Logan just as much as Logan did, but he felt that he had pretty fair reason to be at least a little suspicious. He was sure it wasn’t too horrible, he trusted Logan more than that, but they kind of shared everything. So, of course, he had to ask about it. The two of them may not have had as much time to just hang out, with Roman stealing Virgil every afternoon, but Roman wasn’t in their lunch period and Virgil managed to wait until Remus left to go to the bathroom before turning to Logan. 

“Can I ask something weird?” 

Logan smiled and shrugged, a surprisingly nonchalant response. “I’ve been dealing with Remus or the past few days, it can’t be that weird.” 

“Okay..” Virgil muttered. “Um... You’ve been acting weird. Not bad weird, but you’ve been acting... Not like you. You’re almost upbeat and it’s kind of weird... Is everything okay?” 

Yes, everything was okay, everything was more than okay. Hanging out with Thomas was really helping to ease his stress, apparently more so than he’d realized. “Of course everything’s fine. Everything’s great, really...” 

“Really?” Virgil asked slowly, unconvinced. 

Logan nodded. “I’ve just been reading a new book series and I guess it’s made me more excited than I’d realized. I’d recommend it to you, but it is a crime mystery related series and I know how you feel about that.” 

A new book series in a genre that Virgil refused to read for the sake of not letting his anxiety ruin his day. That was either very convenient or too convenient. “Yeah, I don’t really read those.. Are you sure that’s all that’s going on?” 

One thing that everybody knew about Logan was that he had a talent for hiding his emotions, but even he couldn’t hide that one important moment from Virgil, that split second of panic in his eyes before he returned to his usual calm, cool expression. “I’m pretty sure. I have no reason to hide anything from you, I’d tell you if something were going on.” 

And that was usually true. So, it was pretty fair for Virgil to assume the worst. Maybe this charade had gone on for too long, maybe Logan had forgotten that Virgil was his soulmate and was trying to find someone who fit him better. It was pretty clear that he didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Remus, Logan seemed perfectly honest whenever Virgil had jokingly asked him about it and Logan had missed that tone, answering as if Virgil was actually asking about his feelings for Remus, so there had to be someone else. It was worst case scenario and Virgil really wanted to believe that Logan would never cheat on him, but it was pretty clear that there wasn’t just nothing going on. 

So, he did the most irrational thing he could think of and followed Logan that Thursday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, the two of them ended up at the school library and Logan sat down at his usual table. Their usual table... 

Before long, another guy showed up and sat besides him, someone who Logan was clearly very friendly with, judging by the smile that graced his face as he showed up. Virgil gritted his teeth and leaned with his back against the wall, sliding down and sitting there as he pulled out his phone, texting Roman. 

[Virgil: I need a favor, are you busy?]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Never too busy for you soulmate ;*]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Lol, I’m just teasing, what’s up?]

[Virgil: I wanted to surprise Logan with something tomorrow, but I don’t want to chance running into him. Can you call him and get him to hang out with you for a while? Anywhere is fine, you don’t go anywhere we go]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Aww, cute, I wish I could have what you two have]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Consider it done!]

A few minutes later, Virgil heard Logan excusing himself and turned to peek, watching as he walked away. It took a little while, but it seemed that Roman did manage to convince Logan to get out of there. He went back and grabbed his stuff, apologizing to the other for leaving so suddenly before walking out. 

Now was his chance. Virgil got up and took a deep breath before going and sitting with that stranger. Virgil may not have wanted to really start a scene, but he had to confront this guy now, before he was gone. 

“Excuse me, you know Logan, right?” he asked almost as soon as he sat down. 

Thomas gave him a mildly confused look, but still smiled, wanting to be polite. “Uh.. Yeah. I know Logan. Who are you?..” 

“I’m-” Virgil cut himself off, unsure of how to introduce himself. Calling himself Logan’s soulmate might’ve been a little much, it wasn’t like the two of them went around telling everyone about that. More importantly, everyone thought Remus was his soulmate. “I’m Logan’s friend. Virgil.” 

Thomas smiled a bit more widely. “Oh my god, you’re Virgil. Logan talks about you all the time. And..” He took a moment to look around before turning back to Virgil. “He told me about the soulmate situation... I know you’re his boyfriend and soulmate and he really seems to care about you.” 

Oh, great. It took one sentence for Virgil to feel like a complete and utter moron. “So... The two of you really are just friends?” 

“Well...” 

Ah. Here it was. 

“I’d be lying if I say I didn’t think he was really cool, but you two are soulmates and a couple and I swear, I totally respect that.” 

And, as fast as his blood pressure rose, it was back down to slightly higher than normal. “Okay.. I trust you.” 

Thomas nodded. “I’m sorry if you were stressing so badly about our friendship that it freaked you out or anything, Logan did mention that you’re kind of anxious.” 

“No, um...” His worries may have been a bit more sane now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at least a little ashamed of stalking Logan like that. “I kind of followed him here... He didn’t know. I didn’t know about you, but I knew that he was acting weird and I wanted to figure out what was going on.” 

Now Thomas’s smile was falling. Logan didn’t seem like the type to hide much from Virgil. If his existence was a secret, then maybe it was supposed to stay that way. 

And Virgil could understand that. He didn’t like it, but he understood. Logan didn’t have to share everything with him, especially not when it seemed like he was hiding Thomas because he was afraid of making Virgil more anxious than usual. “I won’t make you tell me everything he told you, it’s not like I don’t let him have friends. It’s just... I don’t know. It doesn’t really seem like him to hide something like this, but I get it.” Just as Logan didn’t want to make Virgil worry, Virgil didn’t want to make Thomas worry about anything between either of them and Logan. “Besides, talking to you really seems to cheer him up. I do like seeing him happy.” It just made him a little nervous when it came out of nowhere and meant that Logan was hiding an entire person from him. 

Thomas relaxed a bit at that and nodded. “That’s good... I mean, he hasn’t said anything bad, I just don’t really want to get between you two like that. You two are really good for each other.” 

“Thanks...” 

“Um..” Thomas checked his phone for the time. “I was going to go home, since Logan’s gone. Did you want to talk to me about anything or do you mind?” 

“Oh, no. I, uh...” He chuckled awkwardly. “I kind of expected the worst here and seeing that I didn’t get that at all, I should get going too.. It was nice and weird to meet you, though.” 

The two of them got up and proceeded to the entrance to the library before turning to face each other. 

“So, uh... I might see you around more often?” Thomas said, half asking. “I don’t know if you were going to tell Logan about this, but if you do, I think it’ll be cool to chat with you some more, he made you seem like a really cool guy.” He held out his hand for a handshake. 

Virgil, however, didn’t seem to notice, turning to look down the hall instead. “Maybe... I have to talk to him and I don’t know if he’d be weird about me talking to the other person he seems to like to vent to, but you seem cool too.” 

Thomas dropped his arm back down to his side, not thinking much of that, and nodded. “Okay. Um... I guess I’ll see you around school.” He walked away without another word, Virgil walking in the opposite direction as he did. 

He didn’t mean to ignore Thomas’s handshake, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t have gone well and he wasn't really sure why. Something about Thomas was trying to pull him in, to shake his hand or even to hold onto it and he couldn’t explain what the hell that was. It wasn’t like Thomas was his soulmate, he was pretty sure he was seeing in more than just different shades of gray, but there was definitely something. 

Maybe Thomas was just that kind of guy, just naturally magnetic or maybe it was Thomas hadn’t found his soulmate himself and it was like being around Roman before, where everyone wanted to be his soulmate, as the nice guy on campus. Either way, it was distracting and Virgil wished he could push it off of his mind, but once he started worrying about something, he didn’t stop. And worrying was bad for more than one reason. For one, it meant that the next morning, he screwed up one of his most basic everyday tasks and nobody bothered to tell him until it was too late. 

No, Virgil didn’t forget to put on pants or leave his jacket at home. If he had, he might have just buried himself alive, but if certain people were questioned, namely Roman, he would’ve said that that would’ve been preferable. 


	6. Chapter 6

When Virgil got to school the next morning, he want about his adjusted morning routine, going straight to try and catch up with Roman and the rest of his friends, knowing that they were probably in the drama room. Unfortunately, it seemed that they’d migrated elsewhere today and Virgil wasn’t about to just wander aimlessly around until he found them, so he shot Roman a text, asking where they were. 

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Art rooms! They all wanted me to display my awesome talents.]

[Virgil: And where is that exactly?]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: You’re by drama, right? I’ll go find you, as a good soulmate should ;*]

[Virgil: I’m grabbing a snack from the cafeteria]

Were they not in school, in an area where Roman likely was being watched closely by his friends, Virgil would’ve told him to kiss his ass, but that probably wasn’t the best idea, so he just started walking towards the cafeteria for a quick after breakfast snack, interrupted as Remus ran into him a few seconds later. 

“Oh, hey Virgil. What’s up? Roman isn’t in the drama rooms waiting for his true love?” he asked, fluttering his eyelashes at him. He and Roman were so mismatched in so many ways, yet so many people thought that they made a cute couple and, to Remus, that was obviously kind of hilarious.

Virgil just rolled his eyes. “He’s in the art rooms, apparently. Do you know where those are?” 

“Yep! Come on, I’ll take you there. I like the new look, by the way. Going red to match with Roman’s colors?” 

“What are you talking about?” 

Remus chuckled and pointed beneath his own eyes. “Your eyeshadow. Red looks a little weird with all of the purple, but you’re kind of making it work, it’s just another shade of emo.” 

Virgil stopped for a second and pulled a mirror out from his bag, checking his eyeshadow. He didn’t go as heavy with it as he would’ve wanted to, but it was still black as ever. Maybe dark gray, if he was being picky. “Very funny. You picked the one morning I’d actually consider believing you.” 

Remus’s smile fell just the tiniest bit and he laughed uncomfortably. “Okay... I’m picking on you, sure but it’s kind of a legit question. I’ve never seen you wear anything besides black, what’s with the sudden change?” 

Virgil shrugged. “Joke’s over. I saw my black eyeshadow, you’re not freaking me out.” 

Remus’s pace slowed to a stop and he pointed at his own green shirt. “What color shirt am I wearing? Not the jacket, the shirt.” 

Virgil looked between Remus and his shirt as if he’d just asked him what his own name was. “It’s green. You always wear a ton of green, it’s your thing.” 

“So, you’re not colorblind. Virgil, what color do you think Roman always wears?” 

Virgil was catching the implications of what Remus was saying. But they didn’t make sense, he could see all the colors on a rainbow, all five, plus the shade of gray to, he didn’t know, represent that those without soulmates were still valid queers? It made sense for that to be Roman’s color. He may have been obsessed with the concept of soulmates for himself, but he never really put down anybody who was against it, even if it confused him a bit. “He wears gray, like the first color of the rainbow.”

“Uh huh...” Remus was beyond suspicious. It would’ve been one thing if Virgil couldn’t see green in addition to red, but for him not to see red by itself? It didn’t make sense. The concept of soulmates was one of the things that set humans apart from other species, partially because it was such a permanent decision made by a force that nobody could explain and partially because it was one of the things that could break the human body in a way that only the human body could be broken. Even if Virgil had been colorblind, which he apparently wasn’t, he should’ve seen red, he should’ve been able to see Roman’s distinct color. Unless he wasn’t his soulmate. 

Remus crossed his arms over his chest. “Virgil. Is Roman actually your soulmate?” 

And there it was. Virgil knew he was going to get some sort of chill down his spine, though he’d incorrectly assumed that it would’ve come from whatever was happening between Logan and Thomas. Nope. He’d been caught because of a mistake he didn’t know that he’d made, because of a mistake that he didn’t know he could make. But that missing color wasn’t really the issue right now. Remus was still looming over him, a knowing and almost angry grin on his face. 

“He’s not, is he?” 

Virgil hesitated for a second before shaking his head, knowing that there was no lying his way out of this one. “He’s not...” 

Seconds too late, Roman came down the hall, almost stopping as he saw Remus confronting Virgil the way he was. “Hey, what’s up? Back off of him.” 

“Ah, right on time,” Remus laughed. “Virgil here just let it slip to me that he’s not your soulmate. You know, you probably should’ve picked someone who could actually see red. And the fact that he can clearly see colors besides red says that he’s already found his soulmate and you really don’t have to be genius to figure out who that is.” Remus clenched his fists at his side, his pained laughter still slipping through his words. “I mean, it took a fucking while, but even I was able to put it together. If Logan and Virgil are the two who really are soulmates, then that means you’ve been lying to the whole school, haven’t you, Roman?” 

Virgil took the opportunity to dash out and Remus made no effort to stop him. He wasn’t the guilty party here. 

Roman laughed uncomfortably. “I... I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d find out anytime soon, especially not like this. I just needed time to figure out how to talk to you and I figured we’d be happier separate. Logan seems better for you than me and I mean, come on, look at us. I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Even I couldn’t believe that it was you, I thought it’d be better for you too if you thought it wasn’t me.” 

Remus scoffed as he looked back at Roman, rolling his eyes. “You fucking moron... I knew it was you.” 

Roman furrowed his eyebrows. He thought he’d been a lot better about hiding it, at least until Virgil accidentally let his lies slip. “How did you-” 

“No,” Remus interrupted, his voice raising slightly. “No, I mean I knew it was you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. Deep down, I knew it had to be you.” 

Immediately, Roman shut up. He was pretty sure Remus had realized it by now, but from the moment Roman laid eyes on Remus, he’d been hoping that it wasn’t him. 

“I mean... Look at you. Everyone thinks you’re the perfect little schoolboy, everyone falls for your stupid routine, even me.” Remus took a deep shaky breath. “From the moment we first had a class together, you looked so perfect and, it may not have been my thing, but I know perfection when I see it and I saw it. The more I learned about you, the more I thought I was right, the more I thought you were a perfect little gentleman. Perfect... Perfect grades, perfect skin, perfect hair, perfectly talented! You’re everything that I’m not, Roman.” 

By that point, Remus was yelling and Roman couldn’t tell if he was angry, sad, or just plain hurt. 

“You were so perfect and everyone loved you and I was the screw up who only managed to snag onto one friend, of course I knew it was you. People aren’t supposed to be as perfect as you or as fucked up as I am, I thought we were going to be the perfect couple and balance each other out, I thought you were going to teach me what it was like to be loveable and I was supposed to teach you that it’s okay to fuck up once in a while.” 

For a second, Remus went silent, letting himself shrink back down to Roman’s height, though his gaze never left Roman’s guilt ridden eyes. “I guess I was wrong about that. I sure as hell was wrong about you.” He took a few steps backwards, starting to move away from Roman. “You’re not perfect at all, it’s all just been a huge trick, bigger than the fun trick you played on me. I guess I can see past the smoke and mirrors and all that and now I know you’re just as fucked up as me.” Remus turned to walk away, not wanting to give Roman the satisfaction of seeing him cry as he left. “You’re just as fucked up as me.” 

Ordinarily, Roman would be upset and stuck wondering if that was true. Now, he was certain of it. 

Remus stormed off to find somewhere to be alone, running into Logan as he did. Logan, who apparently had been looking for him. 

“There you are,” he greeted, frowning as he saw Remus’s expression. “What’s wrong?” 

Remus crossed his arms over his chest. “I just talked to Roman. You, him, and Virgil, you’ve all been lying to me. Roman, I get. Virgil, I get. But... You?” Remus stared at him with hurt in his eyes, seeing the guilt starting to take over Logan’s face. “We may not have been friends, but I thought you at least liked me more than this.”

“I did. I do,” Logan assured, his voice saying that that much was true. “I just...” He paused and sighed. “You’ve been talking to Roman. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of excuses by now.” 

“I have, but I want to know why you thought this was a good idea. You’re so smart... Did you think I was too stupid to eventually find out?”

“No,” Logan said quickly. “No, I told Roman from the moment this began that you’d find out someday... But it was either this or let him hurt you immediately and he’s so selfish sometimes, I didn’t want you to walk away from that conversation thinking that you didn’t deserve a soulmate. You’re a good person, Remus. You may be a little unusual and others might disagree, but you are a good person and you deserve someone who’ll treat you better than Roman would. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but I thought I could be that person for you...” 

“But you don’t love me and you can’t make yourself love me.” 

“Platonically, yes. I do love you. I swear, I didn’t mean to hurt you... I was going to tell you soon.” Thomas was the one who’d convinced him to come to that conclusion, sure, but that didn’t mean Logan wasn’t also thinking about telling him sooner. 

Remus didn't have to look that deep into Logan’s eyes to know that he was telling the truth, but that meant that he didn’t want to be around him at all. There was only one guilty party here and Remus may not have wanted to let him see how emotional he made him, but he also didn’t want to let anybody else feel the weight of his emotions, especially not Logan. “I have to go.” Remus walked away and left, leaving the building and walking himself home. 

Soon after he was out of sight, Roman appeared, definitely looking at least as guilty as he should’ve been feeling as he saw Logan there. “Have you seen Remus? I need to talk to him.” 

Logan shook his head. “You don’t deserve to talk to him right now.” He turned and walked away from him, going to find Virgil and leaving Roman alone. 


	7. Chapter 7

After he’d ran away from Roman and Remus, Virgil attempted to keep a low profile and walked into his and Logan’s usual hideout, not realizing that he’d been followed until he was there. 

“Virgil?” Thomas’s voice asked softly, the other looking up at him. 

“What are you doing here?” Virgil muttered. 

Thomas shrugged and sat down beside him. “I saw you walking and you looked pretty upset, so I followed you. What’s up?” 

“I fucked up,” Virgil quickly said. “I fucked up so bad. I...” He looked up at Thomas. “What color is my eyeshadow?” 

Oh... Thomas had a feeling he knew where this was going. “Red...” 

Virgil nodded and looked down. “I can’t... I can’t see it. I can see, like, every other color on a wheel or whatever except for red and, I guess, the colors around it. I didn’t know and I gave it up to Remus that Roman’s not my soulmate, but, more importantly, what the fuck does this mean for me and Logan? He’s my soulmate, I can see colors, why can’t I see these?” 

Thomas very badly wanted to help calm him down, to tell him that Logan couldn’t see them either, but that wasn’t his news to share. Instead, he grabbed Virgil’s hand, moving slow enough for him to pull away if he wanted to. 

But he didn’t want to. Maybe the day before, in a more clear state of mind, he would’ve pulled away, but now, panicked about both his slip up and Logan’s potential reaction, he let Thomas take his hand, squeezing it lightly and closing his eyes, trying to let his presence calm him. 

Thomas smiled and stared up at the ceiling. “Hey, Virgil, can you do me a favor and name five things you see?” 

“Give me a minute,” Virgil muttered, holding his head in his free hand. 

“Take your time. It’s just a grounding technique that I use when I have panic attacks.”

Virgil made a small noise of acknowledgement, taking a minute to try and get his breathing and heart rate down to a normal level before speaking again. “Okay... What was it again?” he asked as he ran his hand over his face. 

“Five things you see.” 

Virgil opened his eyes and looked around the room, stopping as he saw something on a poster. “I see a new color. A few new colors.” His grip on Thomas’s hand tightened as he attempted not to freak out, no matter how much he wanted to yank himself away at the implications. 

Thomas stopped staring at the ceiling and looked at Virgil, his breath hitching as he saw him. Virgil’s hair was bright and a vibrant shade of something that he’d never seen before, something that was definitely not gray. “I see new colors too.” 

Virgil looked at him and stared at his face for a few seconds, knowing for sure that human skin wasn’t that bright a minute ago. “There’s something new about your face. I don’t know what color that is, but it’s definitely a different color.” 

Now, Remus and Roman may not have seen enough color to realize what was happening for hours after their first moment of contact, but their contact wasn’t sustained. It was a fairly uncommonly known fact, the reason why Remus couldn’t have used that to determine that his soulmate couldn’t have been Roman. Thomas and Virgil, however, were different. Their contact may not have been sustained for long, but it was long enough for the universe to do it’s work, filling Thomas’s world with almost every color and finishing out what Virgil couldn’t see before. 

Thomas thought for a second and looked down at his wrist at the bracelet he always wore, which was a very bright color. “Did... Did this look like this before or was it gray?” 

Virgil looked back at him, blinking a few times at the bright color. “It had to be gray before, I didn’t even see that.” 

Thomas nodded. “This is my color accessory. I’ve always been told that it’s pink and pink is just red and white. It wasn’t exactly red that you were missing.” He looked at Virgil’s hair and chuckled softly. “I guess you kind of knew it deep down. That color in your hair is really pink.” 

Once again, Virgil grabbed his mirror and looked at it, seeing now that his hair was a pinker shade of purple, but it definitely wasn’t that pink. “You’re missing blue.”

Right on cue, Logan walked into the room, his face going white as he saw Thomas and Virgil sitting together. “Virgil... There you are.” 

“Yeah...” He looked between Logan and Thomas, putting away his mirror. “I met Thomas yesterday. He didn’t tell me about anything you guys talk about, but I think there’s something more important than that here.” 

“What color is my bracelet to you?” Thomas asked, holding his arm out. 

Logan hesitated to respond. He may not have known what color the bracelet actually was, but at that point, he did know two things. One: there was no way it was as silver as it looked to him. Two: whatever color it was, Virgil had to know it, too. “I’m not sure why it matters, you both know I can see color. I have for years and so have you, Virgil.”

Virgil shrugged, knowing that Logan was avoiding the question, but also knowing that he would’ve done the same in his shoes. But, at the same time... “How long have you known that you couldn’t see reds or pinks?” 

Logan opened his mouth to lie again, but he stopped himself, knowing that it was pointless by then. Whether Thomas had sold him out or Virgil found out on his own as Logan had feared for years, he found out. “I.. About a week after we found out. I got curious and checked out a few color wheels, but every time, there was just a patch of gray and... I don’t know, I didn’t know what it meant and I didn’t know how to explain it.” He sighed and held his arms cross his chest, shrinking into himself. “I... I researched for hours to figure out what it could’ve meant, but I didn’t find a single clue. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but what I do know is you are my soulmate and I don’t want you worrying about this.” 

Logan had clearly been freaking out about this and he’d been doing so for a couple of years. And Virgil had no idea. He felt like the worst boyfriend in the world. At the same time, Virgil wasn’t one to look at any kind of bright side, but how could he not when the answer to what was clearly one of Logan’s biggest worries was right here? “I think I know why you can’t see them.” 

Logan looked back up at him, curious and confused. “You do?..” 

Virgil nodded and stood up, grabbing Thomas by his wrist, glad that he seemed to catch on quickly enough, and pulling him over to Logan. “Try holding his hand. His color is pink. I know because I couldn’t see it a few minutes ago either.” 

Logan seemed to relax as he began to understand what Virgil was saying, but that didn’t mean he was any less apprehensive, definitely hesitating to grab onto Thomas’s hand. Almost instantly, he noticed a change in Thomas’s bracelet and it took all of his willpower not to just yank himself away and instead let the colors sink in. He watched as Thomas’s bracelet transformed into the bright pink that it had been described as and even as Thomas’s skin color started to change, a similar pink tinge showing up, though it was especially dark in his face. 

As he watched that happen, Thomas watched colors appear in Logan’s tie, deep shades of what were, he guess, blues. He glanced over at Virgil and saw that his hair really was leaning more towards the blue color than the pink that he’d seen before, though it was still a pretty even, purple mix. 

“Two soulmates,” Logan muttered as he pulled his hand away, shaking his head both in disbelief and in pure understanding. “Of course... It should’ve seemed so obvious, but I’ve never really heard many stories about it.” It was rare, but not unheard of, the idea of a person having two soulmates and it usually took the form of a trio, just like it was now. 

“I guess the answer was right in front of you all along,” Thomas hummed as he looked between the two of them. “Um... We probably have a lot to talk about now.. I know you two have been dating for a while and I get it if it’s weird having a third person, but it’s not like I have to date you, especially not immediately.” Thomas would’ve been lying if he said he didn’t want that with Logan - he hadn’t known Virgil enough to feel the same - but it wasn’t like he was going to pressure him, not after everything. 

Logan glanced at Virgil for a second before turning back to Thomas. “I think... We have a lot to talk about. Later would probably be best as class is starting too soon for us to get any kind of productive conversation done, but I think we should talk before making any final decisions.” 

Thomas nodded and looked between him and Virgil. “In that case, I’ll make sure to keep quiet about it until then.” Sure, he would’ve liked being able to go around telling people that he’d found his soulmate - or, rather, soulmates - but if Virgil and Logan wanted to stay quiet about it, who was he to decide otherwise? Besides, he wasn’t as bad about it as Roman seemed to be, judging by the stories that Logan had told him. He was just excited, as almost any other teenager or any other person would’ve been. 

Logan smiled sympathetically, knowing that this couldn’t have been that easy on him, before looking at Virgil and seeing a slightly more worried than usual look in his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked as he grabbed his hand. 

Virgil squeezed his hand and shrugged. “I don’t know... I’m thinking about this whole thing with Remus and Roman. We all kind of lied to the entire school and I’m not really concerned about making friends or whatever, but... What do you think’s going to happen?” 

That was... A very fair worry. The two of them may not have wanted to be a part of this, but in the eyes of the entire school, their intentions didn’t matter as much as Roman’s, so Logan really only saw two endings here. Either everyone would be focused on poor Roman and worried about how Roman was stuck with such an awful soulmate that he had to lie about it - because it was undeniable that he had to be a part of the plot - or everyone would be focused on how badly Roman fucked up and blame everyone involved, including Remus. Either way, Remus was drawing the short end of the stick and he seriously didn’t deserve that. 

“Logan?..” Virgil asked after a minute of watching his boyfriend stare into space. 

Logan snapped out of his trance and looked over at Virgil. The two of them were kind of invisible, minus Logan’s tutoring sessions, so the two of them would deal with some dirty looks or intrusive questions at worst. “Um... I’m sorry to ask this after everything, but would you mind of I still acted as Remus’s friend through this?.. Just a friend this time.” 

“Of course I don’t mind,” Virgil responded with a shrug. “You’re his friend and I may not like him, but he could use that right now...” Even if he probably didn’t want to see Logan right now. “Just be careful.” 

Logan nodded and leaned over, kissing Virgil’s cheek. “At least you won’t be alone when I go comfort him.” He smiled over at Thomas, who seemed understandably awkward as the two shared their soft affection in front of him. “But, for now, why don’t we get to class?” 

It was a very weird day in class for all five of them. Thomas felt awkward every time he looked at Virgil or Logan, as if just glancing in their direction would let the entire school know their truth. Virgil was slowly winding up with worry, waiting for the moment when their secret inevitably broke out to the entire school. Thankfully, despite acting as Roman’s false soulmate, nobody approached him when he was looking that tense. Logan was planning on how he could best help his friend, if Remus even allowed him to help him feel better. Remus, as he wandered the streets, was being left alone just as much as Virgil was, seeing that he was visibly seething with anger. 

And Roman... Well, no. No pause after that. Roman knew that he didn’t deserve anybody’s sympathy right now, he knew that he’d screwed up. Virgil may have been the one who let their secrets slip, but Roman was the reason they were keeping such big secrets in the first place. He may have had accomplices, but this was his fuck up to bear, even if he couldn't bare to be honest about it, not just yet. 


	8. Chapter 8

After school, Remus went to his unofficial home: his friend Janus’s house. He absolutely didn’t live there and Janus’s dad loved to jokingly remind him of that all the time, but Janus was probably the only person who could make his shitty mood any close to better and he really needed that if he was going to be as pissed at Roman as he deserved to be while appearing as unbothered as he preferred. Still, he didn’t really feel like hearing jokes about him not actually living there, so he snuck directly into Janus’s room and waited for him to appear, glad that he wasn’t kept waiting long. 

After being friends with Remus for so long, Janus wasn’t too shocked by his sudden appearance, but he was a bit surprised. “Hey, Remus. You don’t usually bother breaking in, is something up?” 

“I have to talk to you,” he said, partially avoiding the question. 

That alone gave Janus enough of an answer. “Yeah, no problem. What’s up?” 

Remus sighed and sat up to face his friend. “Alright... So, you know how Logan has been saying that he was my soulmate and how Roman was saying that Virgil was his soulmate?” 

Ah. Janus knew where this was going, but he was pretty sure that was the last kind of impression that Remus wanted to see. “Yeah. what about it?” 

“Well, as it would turn out, they’ve all been lying to me,” he said with an uncharacteristically low amount of fire. “Roman was so upset about the fact that the universe paired us together that he got the other two to join in and lie to me. And everyone else, I guess.” 

Janus sighed and sat down beside him. “I’m really sorry to hear that...” 

That was... Way too calm of a reaction. Remus shot up and looked at his friend, betrayal in his eyes. “Did you know?!” 

“No,” Janus quickly reassured. “No, I didn’t know at all... I had kind of a hunch, but I thought I was just feeling overprotective... I mean, Patton and I are complete opposites, yet we were able to get along and start dating pretty quickly. The fact that Logan wanted to stay so distant was kind of off and the fact that Virgil was just letting Roman drag him around to be with his friends was weirder. But those were pretty small things, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I wasn’t, you know, related to Virgil. Or if Patton and I weren’t so different.” A punk and a pastel prep together. They weren’t too different from Remus and Roman, though people weren’t afraid of approaching Janus. At least, not for the same reasons. 

And Janus may have had a tendency to lie and manipulate in order to get his way with people, but he wouldn’t do the same thing with his own friend, especially not with such a big thing. “Right... Of course you didn't know.” Remus sighed and laid back down, staring up at Janus’s ceiling. “I just feel so stupid. I knew it was Roman and I always felt so tied to him, but the second that Logan said it was him...” The second that someone seemed like they actually wanted to be associated with him. 

“I wish I could say I was surprised that someone could do this, but if I thought anyone would do this, it would be Roman. I am kind of surprised that the other two agreed to do something like that, though.” 

Remus shrugged. “I’ll bet anything that Roman paid them or something. At least Virgil. Logan said he just didn’t want me dealing with Roman’s bullshit and I kind of believe him. Still a shitty thing to do, but I can’t really be as mad at him...” Still a little upset, but not nearly as pissed off as he was about Roman. “He didn’t even have the guts to say it to my face.” 

Comfort was definitely not one of Janus’s strong suits. He didn’t know what else he could do besides sit and let Remus get everything off of his chest. “Are you going to be okay?” 

“I don’t know... I probably won’t gouge his eyes out at first sight, but that doesn’t mean I won’t want to.”

“As long as you don’t get yourself expelled I guess,” Janus said with a shrug. “Let me know if you need anything. As long as you don’t need me to help you bury a body or anything, I’ll try to be help.” 

Remus tutted and sat up. “If I were to hurt him, I wouldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t be getting off that easily.” If that look on Roman’s face whenever Remus walked off was any sort of indication, then the guy had to be feeling at least a little guilty about what he’d done. Then again, it could have just as easily been some kind of facade. Considering what Remus knew now, maybe that would’ve been more in character. 

Janus looked at his phone and hummed in thought. “I was going to go to the mall with Patton later, but why don’t you and I go do something instead? You’ve been thinking about getting a new piercing, right?” 

Remus seemed to return to his normal self just a bit at the idea, grinning as he sat up. “Yep. I’ve been wanting a tongue piercing for forever.” He’d put it off because he didn’t think Logan would like it too much, but that didn’t really matter now, did it? “Are you going to do anything?” 

“Not this time, but I don’t think my dad will mind going with us anyways.” Remus’s parents didn’t get too upset when they saw that their son managed to modify his body again, but, besides the fact that tattoo shops scared them both, they didn't approve and wouldn’t give consent themselves, so Janus’s dad took that role for both of them. 

The two of them headed out to the living room, where Janus’s dad was just reading a book, and Janus grabbed his car keys. 

His dad looked up at the sound and smiled as he saw Remus. “I see you managed to sneak in again.” 

Remus shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at.” 

“You’re free, right?” Janus asked. 

His dad checked his watch, pretending to think. “Yeah, sure. I don’t have a life outside of my one and a half children. What are we doing today?” 

“I’ve been meaning to get a tongue piercing and I’ve had a long day,” Remus said. 

“Right, nothing like punching a hole through a muscle with blunt force trauma to drown your sorrows,” Janus's dad responded sarcastically, though he still got up.

“That's a little unfair. Its not blunt force trauma when they use an actual needle,” Remus quipped back, though he got the point. He knew this wasn't one of his smartest ideas. “You'll still come with us?”

“Yeah, why not?” his dad shrugged. “It's definitely not the worst way to cope with a bad day and, besides, I know you, Remus. I'd rather take you to a tattoo shop than let you go home and do the job yourself with a sewing needle and some good luck.” 

Remus chuckled at that. “You underestimate me. I wouldn't need any kind of luck, just some elbow grease.” 

“My god,” Janus's dad said, shaking his head with a smile. “As long as Janus is driving.” 

“Already got my keys,” he said as he headed to the door. 

The three of them went and it wasn't much of a hassle to get Remus's tongue pierced. He may not have gotten an actual body piercing before, but he'd dealt with multiple ear piercings, this wasn't too bad. Plus, the healing piercing would give him something else to focus on. 

“So, you're staying over for dinner, right?” Janus's dad asked on their way back. 

“Is that even a question anymore? Of course I am.” Remus said with a smile. “My parents know I'm here, it's fine.” 

“Of course they do. If you're not there, you're here,” Janus added, keeping his eyes on the road. 

“Kind of like Patton?” Remus asked, half teasingly. “Speaking of, he's not upset that you had to cancel, is he?” Remus kind of liked the little puffball. 

“Of course he's not. He just wants to be sure you’re okay.” Patton wasn’t a huge fan of Remus, he was too intense for his tastes, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care for him at least a little as a friend. One skipped date was more than worth it. 

Remus smiled at that. “Let him know I said thanks.” 

Janus’s dad looked between the two before settling on Remus. “So, now that we got your piercing, do you want to talk about what’s up?” 

He abso-fucking-lutely did not. He wanted to just store it inside and let it fester until the moment that he got to unleash his emotions onto Roman again, though getting a piercing did kind of take the edge off. “Maybe later?” he said questioningly and questionably, knowing damn well that later would never come. 

Janus’s dad wanted to push more, as parents did, but, for one, Remus wasn’t actually his kid. Second, he knew that Remus probably spoke to Janus earlier, judging by the look on his son’s face, and as long as he was talking to someone, that would be enough for now. “Alright, I’ll drop it. But you have to help me in the kitchen to make up for it.” 

Remus grinned and shrugged. “If I must.” 

Remus actually really liked cooking and he was good at it, when he wanted to be. At first, he only liked helping out Janus’s dad in the kitchen because it was the one time he was allowed to handle a knife, even if he was only allowed to slice through vegetables and such, but over time, it grew to be one of his favorite and most calming hobbies. It was meticulous, but messy, and there was so much room for him to do his own thing with spices and such that he just kind of loved it. He wasn’t particularly great at it, due to his insistence on ignoring timers and just using his own senses to figure out when the food was done as well as his absolute lack of precision when it came to anything besides chopping and measuring, but he liked it. And, best of all, there was food at the end! 

If Remus was quiet when he was eating, then he was silent as a mouse when it was his own cooking, besides the occasional hum of approval. Nothing tasted better than knowing you worked hard on a somewhat delicious meal and it managed to cheer him up enough for him to stop thinking about brutal murder and revenge until even afterwards, though the bowl of ice cream that they all had after dinner did help. 

After eating, Remus was completely sated and, while he sometimes wished that he could stay there all the time, he went home and made a bit of small talk with his parents before heading off to his room for the night, though his unpleasant feelings all rose back up as soon as he sat down on the mattress. 

No. He was not letting those feelings take over his world, at least not anytime soon. That would have basically been the same thing as letting Roman win. This is what Roman wanted at first, to make Remus feel like he was anything less than worthy of other people’s affection. Well, if there was anything that that afternoon had taught him, it was that that was wrong. And he was going to cherish that memory and use it as fuel against his anger and pain as long as he could. It was a strategy that had worked in the past and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stop letting it work now. 


End file.
